Are Intel Apollo Lake processors already dying?

Although they were only released in 2016, there are reports that Intel Apollo Lake processors are dying sooner than expected.

According to a Product Change Notification (PCN) document, which isn’t currently available online, but reported on by Tom’s Hardware, Intel is planning to replace four of its Celeron and Pentium Apollo Lake processors due to degradation in performance.

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According to Intel, it has “identified an issue with the Low Pin Count (LPC), Real Time Clock (RTC), SD Card interfaces on Intel Celeron N3350, J3355, J3455 processors and Intel Pentium N4200 processor resulting in degradation of these signals at a rate higher than Intel’s quality goals after multiple years in service.”

Essentially, Intel is saying that these Apollo Lake processors, which are based on its Goldmont microarchitecture and 14nm process node, could die before the warranty is up – so Intel is planning on refreshing the entire Apollo Lake lineup.

Budget laptops affected

Intel Apollo Lake processors are mainly found in budget laptops and desktops, as well as 2-in-1 devices and all-in-one PCs, and the affected CPUs …read more

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